Far from fearing the machine, most creatives view AI as more of an ally and a tool that can help elevate their game
By now you’ve surely seen or heard plenty about the rapid rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT ― and chances are also good that you’ve encountered something about professional attempts to incorporate these tools into various workflows.
Some of these ― like attempts to use ChatGPT for news reporting ― seem a bit far-fetched. But in the creative professional fields like advertising and design, experts are just starting to grapple with what to make of these kinds of tools and how they will disrupt ― or not ― their industries.
So, just what are they making of it?
While you might expect creative professionals to worry about AI, most are level-headed about it: they see all the talk of it as a job-replacer unlikely, viewing it as more of a useful tool than career disrupter.
Simon Richings, creative director at We Are Social, suggested that AI was a clarion call for creatives to up their game. “Ultimately the work it produces is ― by its very nature ― as average as you can get,” he said. “ChatGPT doesn’t know what to say, it just knows what we are most likely to say. This raises the bar for creatives. When five-out-of-10 work is abundantly available for free, six-out-of-10 work is probably not worth paying for. But the really good stuff becomes even more valuable.”
One creative who is sour on it is British songwriter Nick Cave, who had a strong reaction when a fan asked ChatGPT to write a song in his signature style then and sent it to the musician. Cave was so thoroughly unimpressed with the final product that he took to his blog about it.
“What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work,” Cave stressed. “Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite…This song sucks.”
Overall, though, almost all creatives feel that they have the edge over the machine – for now. And that’s probably good news for anyone who fears the wholesale automation of the creative industries.
“The fact that I’m flawed enough to believe I have an advantage might just be the biggest advantage I have,” said Something Different creative director Richard Ryan. “Unless AI kills us all. In which case I was wrong.”
Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.